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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha seemed like another escalation that drove the prospect of peace further away.

This strike on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

That represents a objective that he, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

But if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this success.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of support may have given the president the room to apply more influence on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in July, including hitting a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president sat close as the prime minister personally called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

If Trump's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to handle with some success."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the war, which has led to the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal